Cisco Systems introduces NAC Appliance 4.0Cisco Systems announced the delivery of NAC Appliance 4.0, the latest edition of the company’s Network Admission Control solution designed to protect businesses from information security risks ushered in by non-compliant users and devices.

The appliance provides policy enforcement at network entry points throughout a distributed enterprise. It features policy-enforcement capabilities for protecting local-area networks (LANs) as well as remote office, virtual private networks (VPNs) and wireless access points.

At any given entry point, Cisco’s NAC Appliance 4.0 identifies an assortment of users and networked devices including PDAs, printers and IP phones. The NAC Appliance assesses their role in accessing the network, verifies their compliance with corporate security policies and grants appropriate network privileges. Non-compliant devices are blocked and quarantined. Vulnerability updates can be automatically administered to the operating system as well as updated anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Once users and devices are confirmed as compliant with corporate security policies, they are granted network access.

While the appliance is interoperable with various operating systems, it also collaborates with numerous Cisco security products and other vendors’ networking equipment.

SAP introduces e-Commerce and Web-based CRM capabilities to business management solution for SMEsSAP AG announced that it will introduce e-commerce and Web-based capabilities to SAP Business One. The capabilities enable companies to set up online stores and to deploy customer relationship management (CRM) software via the Internet. According to SAP, these features will provide a unified view of information across sales, financials, manufacturing, reporting and customer-facing activities in a software solution, designed with SMEs in mind. The two offerings are called NetPoint Commerce (NPC) and NetPoint Focus (NPF).

NPC is an integrated e-commerce package, designed for SMEs that want to sell and market online. NPC offers features that users need to create an online presence, from shopping-cart functionality, theme templates and design capability, to online customer support and scalability. It allows users to create as many stores as they want, based on the same items and prices stored in SAP Business One. NPC also is able to accommodate both business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce on the same Web site.

NPF is an online CRM package extending the reach of SAP Business One CRM functionality using a Web-based user interface. NPF adds campaign management and prospecting capabilities as integrated additions to the CRM capabilities for sales force automation and customer service already available in SAP Business One.

While both products are currently available as solution extensions wherever SAP Business One is sold, they will be integrated into the solution’s core development and offered with the solution going forward.

IBM offers Lotus Notes for Linux OSIBM announced that the latest release of Lotus Notes will work with Linux.

With this release, Lotus Notes will deliver e-mail and group scheduling on Linux, as well as the opportunity for customers to take Notes applications and run them on a Linux desktop. Combined with server support for Intel and mainframe Linux, IBM now offers end-to-end support for Linux on the Lotus Notes and Domino 7 collaboration platform.

IBM Lotus Notes on Linux is now available as part of version 7 and supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, update 3. Support for Novell SUSE Linux Desktop For Enterprise 10 is expected to be available for delivery to customers within approximately 90 days from Novell SuSE Linux Desktop 10 availability. Current Lotus Notes licensed users can run their existing licenses on Linux desktop.